Folks, this is your call list to stop President Obama’s executive amnesty plan. John Boehner and Harry Reid both support the President. They want to fund President Obama’s plan. Boehner and Reid are collaborating on funding President Obama’s actions. As I have explained before, to get legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives, a rule must first be voted on to set the | Read More »

Sociologist, Max Weber famously wrote about the good, the bad and the ugly facets of bureaucracies. He saw them as a necessary evil that needed to be kept in check. He feared a technocratic dictatorship of Nietzchean Last Men. Weber’s argument is described below.

Iron cage, a sociological concept introduced by Max Weber, refers to the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The “iron cage” thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as “the polar night of icy darkness”.

Chuck Schumer is introducing the BRAINS Act and it’s not even about zombie preparedness. Come on, get on the ball guys. Well, it’s actually a bill about getting smart people into the US from other countries. However, rather than lock them down and distort the market with H1-Bs, we’ll give them a path to a green card. Sounds good to me. Though I also like Lamar Smith’s eliminating of the diversity lottery.

US attempts to extradite Kim Dotcom have been delayed until 2013. It is unconfirmed whether the delay is related to the need to send a reinforced tanker to New Zealand in order to have a vehicle strong enough carry his weight back to the United States. In the meantime, the hubris (and food) filled man is trying to dictate terms to the US. That won’t | Read More »

US attempts to extradite Kim Dotcom have been delayed until 2013. It is unconfirmed whether the delay is related to the need to send a reinforced tanker to New Zealand in order to have a vehicle strong enough carry his weight back to the United States. In the meantime, the hubris (and food) filled man is trying to dictate terms to the US. That won’t | Read More »

While tax time has come and gone for most, hundreds of thousands have reported they have fallen victim to the number one crime in America – Identity Theft. Or in the case of the illegally filed tax return – tax return identity theft. According to the Internal Revenue Service, more than 850,000 tax returns last year were associated with fraudulent tax refunds involving identity theft. | Read More »

The House is doing anything but shirking its responsibility to apply oversight to the Obama administration. The FCC in particular is getting the attention it needs. “Regulatory hubris” in picking winners and losers is part of the problem, says Commissioner Robert McDowell. He should know, as he’s on the inside. Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley disagree on the FCC’s transparency though. Issa gives them a | Read More »

The House is doing anything but shirking its responsibility to apply oversight to the Obama administration. The FCC in particular is getting the attention it needs. “Regulatory hubris” in picking winners and losers is part of the problem, says Commissioner Robert McDowell. He should know, as he’s on the inside. Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley disagree on the FCC’s transparency though. Issa gives them a | Read More »

Sometimes, the anarchists lose. Even in leftist Sweden, The Pirate Bay’s founders lost their last appeal. It’s guys like these, who deliberately put up a system for infringing on US copyrights while playing word games to justify it, that motivated SOPA and that drive the desire for a treaty like ACTA. Google considers its privacy changes a public policy issue as the firm is getting | Read More »

Sometimes, the anarchists lose. Even in leftist Sweden, The Pirate Bay’s founders lost their last appeal. It’s guys like these, who deliberately put up a system for infringing on US copyrights while playing word games to justify it, that motivated SOPA and that drive the desire for a treaty like ACTA. Google considers its privacy changes a public policy issue as the firm is getting | Read More »

According to Darrell Issa, SOPA is officially postponed by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith. Issa broke the news on Twitter, which only underscores how important it is that we protect the Internet from capricious censorship, as was the risk under a SOPA-like regime. On the Senate side, Harry Reid has canceled the vote on PROTECT IP, killing momentum for the proposal in both houses of | Read More »

According to Darrell Issa, SOPA is officially postponed by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith. Issa broke the news on Twitter, which only underscores how important it is that we protect the Internet from capricious censorship, as was the risk under a SOPA-like regime. On the Senate side, Harry Reid has canceled the vote on PROTECT IP, killing momentum for the proposal in both houses of | Read More »

So, Erick Erickson decided to make a big push against SOPA today, again bringing out the primary threat card. I also had a post on SOPA and PROTECT IP today. We were heard. On the House side, Speaker John Boehner echoed Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and said the committee needs to find consensus before the bill can get a vote. And again, conservatives like Darrell | Read More »

So, Erick Erickson decided to make a big push against SOPA today, again bringing out the primary threat card. I also had a post on SOPA and PROTECT IP today. We were heard. On the House side, Speaker John Boehner echoed Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and said the committee needs to find consensus before the bill can get a vote. And again, conservatives like Darrell | Read More »

We celebrated Monday when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor effectively signaled the death of SOPA, the Stopping Online Piracy Act. Cantor said the Internet censorship bill would not see a vote until there was consensus on the matter. As long as Darrell Issa, Justin Amash, and Jason Chaffetz are on the case there will be no consensus on sweeping Internet censorship, so Cantor’s position basically | Read More »